“Oh, you are fanciful, and not used to the pale faces of us Londoners,” returned Arthur. “You cannot put me off in that manner,” continued Alice, pertinaciously; “people do not look ill and careworn without some cause for doing so. How is it, pray, that you never come here? so fond as you used to be of Kate, too! I expected to find you regularly installed as _l’enfant de famille_. Do you know I begin to have my suspicions----” “Hush!” interrupted Arthur, in a low, stem voice; “whatever you may suspect, never refer to this subject again, there are some sorrows in life for which there is _no_ remedy; these must be endured and struggled with in silence, for so only _can_ they be borne. If you would not give me pain, forget that this idea ever occurred to you.” As he spoke his pale face flushed, and his lip quivered with the emotion he strove, but was unable entirely to conceal. “Forgive me, dear Arthur!” exclaimed Alice, whilst tears of ready sympathy glistened in her eyes; “I spoke carelessly--foolishly: indeed, indeed, I did not mean to give you pain! But you are not angry with me?” As she spoke she laid her hand caressingly on his shoulder and glanced up in his face with a beseeching look, which would have melted the most flinty-hearted stoic. Arthur drew her to him, and kissed her smooth brow, in token of forgiveness, ere he replied-- “Before we quit this subject, never to resume it, let me say this much to you: in this matter I have nothing to reproach myself with; as far as I have been able to see what was right, I have acted up to it. This is my only comfort. That I have suffered much, I will not attempt to deny; but I am thankful to say the blow, though severe, has not paralysed me. The sunshine of my life may be destroyed for years, perhaps for ever, but my vigour and energy are left me, and I will yet make myself a name, and win myself a position that the mere possession of wealth can never bestow. Now, forget that this conversation ever took place.” As he spoke the door flew open, and Harry and Lord Alfred Courtland, having encountered each other at the club, made their appearance arm-in-arm, like a pair of well-grown Siamese twins, and Alice was dispatched all in a hurry to put on her “things,” to be taken to a private view of the annual exhibition of the Society of Amalgamated Amateurs in Water-colours, whom Harry irreverently paraphrased as the “Amalgamated Muffs;” a definition the truth of which a closer inspection of the efforts of those mild and amiable caricaturists did not tend to disprove. As they strolled up and down the rooms, waiting for Kate and Mr. Crane, who had promised to join them, Lord Alfred,--on whose arm Alice was leaning, and who had been rattling on with great volubility, and in the highest possible spirits,--suddenly observed--